Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali

Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali (1964)
Read: April 2012

I picked this book up at the Diwan book fair at work. I know I'm not meant to buy any new books until I've finished the ones I've already got on the shelves (!) but I couldn't resist buying a book with the word 'beer' in the title (and picture on the front cover) that was on sale in a school!

This is the only book by the author who died young and it had some rave reviews on the back about the potential of this writer and comparisons in style to some other literary greats. The book follows a young man as he is trying to make his way in life, discover women and continue his love of beer (and general lounging at the snooker club).

I would have liked more of the novel to be set in Cairo, the middle section is set in England, but this does offer an alternative view on the situation in the middle east at that time and British perspectives on Egypt to come through also which I must admit was interesting. Even those who had visited Egypt, as part of the army deployment there, were still unfamiliar with life there and came back with the preconceptions that they had started with at home.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1995)
Read: April 2012

People rave about this musical and so when I saw the book on the shelf at work (we have an 'open library' in the staff room with books of varying age and quality!) I thought I'd pick it up.  Ironically when Lis and the kids came over on holiday she was reading it too!

The premise of the book is that it is a side-story from the Wizard of Oz tale as it tells the story of where the Wicked Witch of the West came from.  It follows her birth and growing up as she goes to school and is a young woman. The story though jumps about a bit and the exact purpose of the tale is hard to follow at times. It doesn't provide as clear an introduction to her back story as I'd expected. Maybe it would have helped my understanding if I'd swatted up on the Wizard of Oz again, but I thought my general knowledge would have been enough for the story to make sense.

Maybe this is what the Lord of the Rings books are like - that as you have to create a whole fantasy world you have to work hard to follow the story and the rules of this new world that the characters inhabit. It's a lot more than just following the characters because you actually have to introduce the characters and the setting to the reader. I coped with the 'other world' of Harry Potter, but maybe that is an unfair comparison!

There are others in the series / style by the same author, but I think that fantasy is not my genre.

Playing Cards in Cairo by Hugh Miles

Playing Cards in Cairo: Mint Tea, Tarneeb and Tales of the City by Hugh Miles (2004)
Read: March - April 2012

This book came courtesy of DaddyP and the cover looked strangely familiar, but on reading the blurb is wasn't one that I had heard of before.  I really enjoyed this book though and it felt like I whizzed through it. I've actually already passed it back to DaddyP as I think he should take a read of it and it will definitely be going in our 'keeper' collecting of Egypt books.

The book is a biography is sorts in that it follows Hugh's time living in Cairo. He was in Cairo as a journalist, but on returning to a rainy UK decides that he wants to be back in Cairo - and besides, he's just met a girl he'd like to get to know more.

What follows is sort of a Cairo-based version of the Girls of Riyadh. It is told from Hugh's perspective which shows his struggle to get to know this Egyptian girl better and overcome the restrictive views on male/female interactions.  But what he does see is more about how the lives for young Egyptian women are shaped by the society they live in and how they shape their lives to cope with their families and the city.

There are some great tales of trying to stay out late or trying to snoop in on each others dates, and what makes this such a great book is that it is all so every-day and so real.